Security video increases outrage over Zacatecas jail break

Reformapublished security videos of last week’s strike by a commando group to free 53 prisoners from a state prison in Zacatecas. The videos show the convoy of seven security vehicles, with lights flashing, arriving at the Cieneguillas prison in the pre-dawn hours and being waved in through the main gate, while prisoners let themselves out of their cells as their guards disappeared. Commandos wearing official-looking uniforms escorted the 53 prisoners out in a calm and ordered manner, and left the prison in less than three minutes without any resistance from the staff. Questions were also raised as to Justice Ministry and Federal Police failures– the convoy had to pass directly by their bases on their way to and from the prison. The immediate target of outrage is Zacatecas governor Amalia García of the PRD. Senator Ricardo Monreal—himself under a cloud of suspicion—said the prison break was “the result of the complicity at the highest level of the Zacatecas government.” (Reforma 5/20)